Need help/advice on upgrading PC

[rrivera]

Hello, long story short, old PC's motherboard died and I figured I'll upgrade and salvage parts instead of building from scratch.

 

Question 1:  Will this build work, will it be stable, etc?
Question 2:  If yes, can anyone suggest a video card under $300 U.S.? I checked the ratings on userbenchmark.com and I'm leaning towards the GTX 1060, but don't know which one to pick from all the "gtx 1060's."

 

Also, if it matters, I’m mostly going to be using this as a replacement gaming rig, but I’m not necessarily going for extreme FPS’s and settings (not that big of a budget) and honestly, I just want to run WoW Legion smoothly when it comes out.  I might check out other PC games eventually, but in the foreseeable future, just WoW. 

 

Thanks in advance and here are the parts I currently own, or are on my shopping list.

 

CPU:  Getting rid of old CPU (AMD Phenom IIx6 1055t) and dead Biostar Mobo in favor of (bday gift!!!) i7 6700k.

Mobo:  Considering Gigabyte ATX z170xp-sli (any recommendations for under the $135 mark are welcome, since this part is “free” for me also since someone’s buying me the mobo for this price range.)

RAM:  Considering G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133

VCard:  Need advice, but considering Nvidia GTX 1060 after looking through userbenchmarks.com

 

"Salvaged" parts from old pc:

 

Case:  Cooler Master HAF 932

CPU Fan:  Cooler Master V8 (NOT V8 GTS--- Linus did an unboxing of the V8 I own here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzPiuRraCJ8)

PowerSupply: Thermaltake TR2 RX 850W

HDD:  Some 7200rpm that I have all my files in from previous computer…  considering  a sub $100 SSD for boot up drive, any advice here welcome too. 

 

OS:  Considering buying most inexpensive version of windows 10 (I hear they send these out with thumb drives?) Again, any advice welcome.

 

I’m not super tech savvy, in fact I learned most of what I know about PC’s after researching and reading about stuff after I found out my mobo died, and came up with the list I have here after reading stuffs and keeping with my budget.  I’ll be happy if I spend less than $400 on parts I’m missing (vcard, ram, hdd, os.)  After I found out about Linus’s channels and him constantly telling me to sign up to this site, I finally did and here’s my long post.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Herman Mcpootis]

For the ram, 32gb is overkill, go with 8gb to save money or 16 if you have extra in your budget.

 

[Zyndo]

17 minutes ago, rrivera said:

Snip

What resolution/fps do you intend to play at? based on what i can glean from your post, you're WAY overbuilding/overspending for your computer (other than the 1060). You don't need a 6700k, you don't need 32GB of RAM.

 

Realistically you could probably even get a locked CPU and cheaper motherboard based on your needs. Now, if you WANT overkill and you WANT to overclock and you WANT spend the extra money then by all means go for it. I have a 980ti Xtreme Gaming and 6700k for 1080p gaming @60 fps. Don't let me talk you out of your powerful dream setup. But if all you're after is an excellent bang for your buck gaming experience predominately for a game like WoW, then you really needn't spend so much.

[Zyndo]

As far as which 1060 to get... it doesn't really matter all that much to be honest. If you're going to manually overclock them then they will all be able to get to pretty much the same area or performance. the physically smaller cards tend to have slightly lower clocks and slightly worse cooling systems than the physically larger ones so if you're after the best possible overclock then you will want a larger card like a G1 Gaming, Strix, Gaming X, or whatever. But if all you want is good performance and a good price then you can just pretty much pick up whichever is cheapest. or pick whichever one looks the best. there isn't going to be a significant performance difference between the two.

[nicdepro]

to get the cheapest windows copy possible go here, this is where I bought my win 10 pro key for $30 https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/

[rrivera]

9 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

What resolution/fps do you intend to play at? based on what i can glean from your post, you're WAY overbuilding/overspending for your computer (other than the 1060). You don't need a 6700k, you don't need 32GB of RAM.

 

Realistically you could probably even get a locked CPU and cheaper motherboard based on your needs. Now, if you WANT overkill and you WANT to overclock and you WANT spend the extra money then by all means go for it. I have a 980ti Xtreme Gaming and 6700k for 1080p gaming @60 fps. Don't let me talk you out of your powerful dream setup. But if all you're after is an excellent bang for your buck gaming experience predominately for a game like WoW, then you really needn't spend so much.

Thanks for the quick reply. I do agree about the overbuilding part (I'm assuming the rest of the pieces I have from the old PC would work with the other parts I mentioned?)

 

The 6700k was a gift so I was trying to build around it, my first choice was an i5 but someone got me the 6700k (not that I'm complaining)... the 135 I'm allocating for the mobo is somewhat a gift as well.  Also, the previous PC lasted me about 8 years so I'm just kind of looking ahead and making sure my new rig would hold up for any games I might play in the future.

[Zyndo]

1 minute ago, rrivera said:

Snip

 

Well if the 6700k is a gift then you should absolutely use that =). the Gigabyte board you linked should be fine for it. It misses out on some more current motherboard features, but most of those are unimportant and often cost a hell of a lot more in order to get.

 

As far as compatibility with your old components go... you're going to have to check that for yourself. Bust out that manual for your CPU cooler and check to see if its compatible with 115x sockets (all 1150.1551. 115-anything will all have the same mounting holes. if it can mount any of those sockets then it can mount this one). your HDD will almost certainly be compatible.

 

When it comes to PSU, you may need another unit. According to this PSU tier list, that is a tier 7 unit. I would upgrade your PSU if I were you and if you intend to do some overclocking.

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/631048-psu-tier-list-updated/#comment-8149083

 

 

As far as a boot drive, the A-Data SP550 series is a good budget SSD. Not quite as fast as some of the more expensive SSD's, but plenty cheap, and still much much faster than a HDD.

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/qf98TW/a-data-internal-hard-drive-asp550ss3120gmc

 

16GB of RAM is all you need. pick a stylish one you like and pull the trigger. You don't need faster memory as your system isn't going to be able to take advantage of it anyway, so just buy the cheapest 16GB one you like =)

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/y9rcCJ/corsair-memory-cmk16gx4m2a2400c16

[Zyndo]

(Sorry double post)

[rrivera]

@herman mcpootis:  I see, thanks. Maybe I'll trim down to a 2x8 and use the extra cash for the ssd or os.

 

@nicpdepro: Ahh interesting, I'll look into it!  Thanks.

 

@Zyndo Oh, any downgrades or extra $'s I can get would probably go into a newer PSU and/or CPU Fan then...  I looked at the V8's specs and it fits  Intel Socket:
LGA 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 1150 / 775 *  ......... the 6700k is 1151 though, correct?  So does that mean it won't work?

 

SSD:  I was looking at the same A-Data one!  I figure it would suffice as a boot drive and probably even fit WoW on there >.> (bad idea?)

 

As far as PSU... I hear it's no good to cheap out on them so I suppose I'll have to reallocate funds or delay the build for more $.  Since I'm only using a single VCard + 6700k, would a 650w be sufficient?  I'll go check at what I can afford in Tier 1 from the thread you linked and go down from there, haha.  Wish me luck!

[Zyndo]

12 minutes ago, rrivera said:

LGA 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 1150 / 775 *  ......... the 6700k is 1151 though, correct?  So does that mean it won't work?

Did you even read what I said? all 115x socket mounting brackets are the same. if it can fit 1150, 155, and 1156, then it can also fit 1151.

 

12 minutes ago, rrivera said:

SSD:  I was looking at the same A-Data one!  I figure it would suffice as a boot drive and probably even fit WoW on there >.> (bad idea?)

Using your boot drive as a storage drive is not a bad idea at all. feel free to put as much other stuff on it as you want.

 

12 minutes ago, rrivera said:

As far as PSU... I hear it's no good to cheap out on them so I suppose I'll have to reallocate funds or delay the build for more $.  Since I'm only using a single VCard + 6700k, would a 650w be sufficient?  I'll go check at what I can afford in Tier 1 from the thread you linked and go down from there, haha.  Wish me luck!

with how power efficient components are becomming nowadays i seriously doubt a 6700k+1060 would consume more than 300W under load (that being said, having headroom is always a good idea when it comes to a PSU). so a 500-550W is more than enough for your needs.

[rrivera]

Oh.  Woops sorry about that.  Good to know the V8 will fit!

 

I'll look into a 550/600w in case I decide to change the vidcard in the future.  Was checking out the Tier 1 corsair stuff and now I'm seeing "small form" so I guess there are different sizes for these things too x_X more reading I suppose.

 

Thanks again for all the tips!

[Zyndo]

27 minutes ago, rrivera said:

Oh.  Woops sorry about that.  Good to know the V8 will fit!

 

I'll look into a 550/600w in case I decide to change the vidcard in the future.  Was checking out the Tier 1 corsair stuff and now I'm seeing "small form" so I guess there are different sizes for these things too x_X more reading I suppose.

 

Thanks again for all the tips!

EVGA 550W G2 is probably the unit you're looking for. if that price is too high fry for a Seasonic M12 or Corsair CXM (grey label ones, not the green ones). or just choose from that list at your leisure =)

[rrivera]

Looking at lower RAM now (2x8's) and I'm confused with these two... what's making the red ones more expensive?  The specs look the same to me

tinyurl.com/j9k27wz

vs

http://tinyurl.com/z7qd4ta

If it's JUST the looks... I'm getting them cheaper silver ones hehe

 

 

Also, as far as upgrade the PSU, this looks like the winner so far.

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/rmx-series-rm550x-550-watt-80-plus-gold-certified-fully-modular-psu

 

BUT!  I just saw your post just now and that EVGA one @ sub 100 looks pretty good!

I might even be able to push it to the 650w one for 10 bucks more

 

And to confirm with the GPU... as far as sub $300 goes, is the 1060 going to be my "best" bet?

Edited August 28, 2016 by rrivera
Small comment on PSU